What a Cracker of a Weekend

Well, that was a smashing weekend.

I am wiped out of course. I think I managed to notch up just into double figures for hours slept over the last four nights whilst also driving there and back with a car full of teen (you know who you are). Fortunatley for me, I was kept awake on the way back by the sound of nails scraping down a blackboard which is apparently what passes for popular music these days. Can you believe the album was called NOW 64! I have the original "Now thats what I call Music" in my vinyl collection. Someone promise me they don't still only do one per year.

Another excellent year at Greenbelt. I seemed to have many duties though this year. Not only was I with my surrogate youth group, I also had many of my own youth group all around me too which was lovely. And as well as that, I took my eldest two daughters plus eldests friend. The two older ones really enjoyed their freedom but Evo1.2 really struggled on her own. But massive thanks go to Mr and Mrs Superslug who took her in practically for the whole time - their daughter is Evo1.2's best pal.

This year was memorable as Karin and I finally met up in the flesh. It is so good to have a face to go with a name. As one might expect, we met in the tiny tea tent.

Greenbelt would not have been even a fraction as enjoyable however had it not been for sociable and reserved beer tent visits with Freedom Bound, Polly Nate and Phil Ward and their friends. I thank them immensely for not tolerating an obnoxious fundamentalist such as moi but instead welcoming me into their bossom with acceptance :-)(please, no innuendo). - Oh, a quick mention to Tina whose femminine perspecive subverted fisticuffs between FB and myself and also who's detective work pointed out how similar the same ruffians are with reference to our hand washing habits.

I couldn't of course fail to mention the last nights final excitement of fellowshipping with my loyal youth - the ones I was giving a lift to. Sadly, it will have to go unmentioned because they all fell asleep before we were due to go. Though Lucy did revive herself - the others really symbolise what the next generation are coming to ;-)

But thank you all for making it a very memorable experience and one which I sincerely hope to repeat next year.

For old times sake,

Love,

Evo1

It looks like being a long day

Well, I go away camping tomorrow for a few days with several groups of young people and my two eldest daughters to boot.

In the meantime, I set aside today to write a business plan which is needed before I go.

The whole day I have had and so far I have hardly started the introduction. I have got all the numbers done but the bit I hate - the words - are yet to get onto the paper. All in all, it should take me about 4 hours. That takes me to 8 PM at the earliest and I have not even thought about packing!

If you were thinking of giving me a ring today, DONT!!

See you all after the break :-)

Update on Size

It's been a while since I mentioned the Slimming World performance.

Well, I got my stone and a half certificate this week - now up to 1st 7.5 off since starting there - and just over two stone since the beginning of the year.

But more importantly, I was wearing those 34" trousers on Sunday - all day. OK, they were not the most comfortable clothes ever but it was worth it. They should only get more comfy.

But I have another stone and a half to go and that seems like a long slog. Who knows, I might even see 32" - surely not, I was about 14 last time I would have fit those. - Yrs old that is!

And the game of squash I mentioned - I did enjoy it - but I felt my back twinge pretty strongly and so I am coming to terms with the possibility that I might not be able to play properly again - I still don't count messing about with some of the younger brethren since I don't really have to move very much with them. If I have to stop playing squash, that will be a big blow for me. OK, I am still running every day and that must be good for me - but one cannot get away from the fact that it is mind numbingly boring!

SKYPE

I just signed up to this but I dont know anyone else who is on - have you got a skype name?

Reply to this if you have with it and I won't publish it.

Or, you could give me a call - my skype name is (firstname).(surname)

It's here by the way.

Round, like a circle in a spiral....

Something happening over on planet Evo made me pen this somewhere else. Thought it worthwhile putting up here for reasons of catharsis. It's to do with my favourite chapter, Gen 1. ;-)

It starts off with three words that I wonder if we have ever actually wondered about: "In the Beginning".

When we are born, our mums and dads are already there. Sometimes their mums and dads are there too and they look after us until we get big enough to look after ourselves. And then maybe we meet someone and have children and look after them. In the meantime, we have started school - its all very scary but there are older children there who have seen it all before and perhaps we make friends with some of those older children but next years they go on to another school and are gone from our lives as we are gone from the lives of the younger children below us - it goes around in circles.

There are cycles everywhere we look - the circle of life - the water cycle - the carbon cycle (every cell in our body is replaced by different chemicals every 10 years or so - we literally are different people as well as changing mentally and spiritually and getting bigger, the actual fabric of our body changes too!) And what do all of these circles tell us? They lead us to believe that there will be no end just as it leads us to believe there was no beginning.

But in Genesis 1:1, it starts off by telling us that there was a "beginning". But it doesn't tell us what it was like. It is beyond our understanding. What was there? I don't really know, but I do know that the first four words are, "In the beginning God". We don't know what else was there in the beginning, but this passage tells us God was there.

And in the last book of the bible, "Revelations", there are four special living creatures in heaven. (Creature means something that was created - they weren't there in the beginning). They praise God like this: ""Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

Holy three times, once for when he was - he was there in the beginning when there was nothing else - God really was holy then, you can't get much more holy than being the only being. Once for when He is... He is.. now. All the nows, yours, your mums, your grandmas, your childrens,... And he is holy - He is different from all of us. Holy means set apart - He is certainly that. And the third one is for when He is to come. Just as there was definitely a beginning - even though it seems like things have been going on for ever, there was a beginning, so also will there be an end - things will not go on for ever as they now are. But in the end to come, so God will also be there - just like he was there in the beginning.

And all the circles will end. The heartbreak of losing your friends to new schools, grandmas, granddads, mums and dads to disease and the sadness of knowing your children will lose you, that will all finish. And then we will know that....

In the End God....